Tolling
The first strategy that transportation officials can consider involves
developing an institutional framework that facilitates tolling. In developing such a framework, transportation officials can consider building support for a tolling approach with the public and decision makers in the state and securing enabling tolling legislation. (See fig. 12.) Developing such a framework through these two means involves identifying and articulating the goals to be achieved by the tolling approach in the context of larger state policy goals.
Figure 12: Strategies to Address Challenges to Tolling
Building support. Building support for a tolling approach includes two interim steps—establishing a rationale for tolling and defining the
underlying motivations for its use. Together, these steps provide a basis for gaining political and public support before seeking and securing adequate tolling legislation.
Establishing a solid rationale for tolling involves linking the specific reasons, or goals, for tolling with state policy goals for transportation.36 For example, linking a tolling goal, such as managing congestion, to a broader state goal, such as using existing infrastructure more efficiently, can provide a basis for its use. Similarly, a tolling goal of supplementing
transportation funding with new revenues could contribute to a broad state
36This discussion of tolling goals assumes that the approach makes economic sense and is a viable and reasonable option for making transportation improvements in the state. It also assumes that all options under consideration for transportation improvements have been assessed in an adequate context. When it is determined that a tolling approach is a viable and reasonable option for making transportation improvements and should, therefore, be made available as another tool to finance transportation, the development of tolling goals can help transportation officials strengthen their case for tolling.
Source: GAO analysis of information provided by state transportation officials.
Develop an institutional framework that facilitates tolling
Provide leadership to build support for projects that have addressed tolling challenges
Select a tolling approach that provides tangible benefits to users
policy goal of funding investment in transportation systems with revenues generated directly from users.
Articulating the underlying motivations for using a tolling approach can also help transportation officials build support for and accomplish broader transportation goals and tailor tolling goals to accomplish those ends. For example, consideration of a tolling approach might be motivated by a desire to accomplish other goals, such as finding a replacement for the gas tax or attracting private investment for transportation. Irrespective of the motivations that guide the development of the goals, advocates of tolling have to make a compelling case for its use to build public acceptance for it and make it politically viable. Goal setting can help transportation officials articulate the motivations for using the approach, identify the goals to be achieved by its use, and demonstrate how the tolling goals will tie into broader state goals. Such a process can help decision makers formulate a transparent and comprehensive rationale for the use of tolling and gain public and political support for it.
Secure legislative authority. Securing tolling legislation is the next step in developing an institutional framework for tolling. Although there are common reasons for tolling, the form legislation takes in each state often depends on the motivations for using the approach and ultimately the goals to be achieved through it. Our review of legislative efforts in Texas,
Virginia, Oregon, and Florida illustrates how legislation evolved in
response to different motivations and tolling goals. Following are some of these legislative efforts:
• Leveraging transportation dollars. Texas enacted legislation that provided for a broader application of tolling than currently existed and established a funding mechanism that supported a broader use of tolls in the state’s transportation system.37 This legislation facilitates tolling by realizing two goals—to expand the use of tolling and to leverage tax dollars by allowing state highway funds to be combined with other funds to build toll roads. This combination of funds makes toll roads more feasible, since the entire cost of the project does not have to be repaid with tolls. Virginia’s Public-Private Transportation
372003 Tex. Sess. Law Service, Ch. 1325. The bill provided for the establishment of the TTC, establishment of guidelines for the creation of Regional Mobility Authorities, use of PPPs, provision of toll equity money for new toll projects, and application of tolls on nontolled roads.
Act of 1995 (PPTA) allows qualifying local governments and certain other political entities to enter into agreements authorizing private entities to acquire, construct, improve, maintain, and operate qualifying transportation facilities. The public entities may either solicit or accept unsolicited proposals from private sources. Private-sector sponsorship and investment in transportation projects could help states realize both an established tolling goal to accelerate project delivery and a goal to leverage tax dollars by securing private investment in transportation projects.
• Operating like a business. In some cases, there is a motivation to
“reinvent government” by operating in a more businesslike manner.
Public agencies of all types have pursued innovation and best practices found in the private sector to improve the cost-effectiveness and timeliness of product delivery. A goal that embodies these motivations can take many forms in legislation. In Florida, for example, legislation was passed in 2002 that turned the Florida Turnpike, operated by the Florida DOT, into a business organization as a way to preserve, improve, and expand the turnpike system. State decision makers were interested in operating the turnpike as a business for the state and employing private-sector methods in the areas of management, finance, organization, and operation. The goals for the enterprise are to increase revenues, expand capital program capabilities, and improve customer service.
• Transitioning to a new system of transportation finance. The sustainability of the current financing system has been called into question, and as we have reported, a fundamental reexamination of the present system will be necessary to increase the
cost-effectiveness of spending and to mitigate congestion.38 Some transportation experts believe that shifting to a fee structure that more directly charges vehicle operators for their actual use of roads would improve the operation of the road system and better target investment. For example, Oregon’s efforts to explore mileage charges provide some insights into how legislation can be developed to carry out such an ambitious goal. A road user fee proposal, passed by the state legislature in 2001, created a user fee task force to design a method of charging drivers for their use of the state’s roads as an
38GAO, 21st Century Challenges: Reexamining the Base of the Federal Government, GAO-05-325SP (Washington, D.C.: February 2005).
alternative to the current system of gas taxes. The task force
proposed the eventual imposition of a mileage fee in place of existing gas taxes and pilot testing for the mileage fee as the first step toward implementation. An institutional framework, such as the framework under development in Oregon, can help states that are seeking to test or implement new methods of highway financing to realize such goals.